Betta has growths despite treatment

[GadgetGal]

I am getting desperate as my beautiful, friendly Betta seems to be deteriorating despite what I do. He has some sort of white with swelling.
(larger photos below)

Tank: 30ltr Biorb (I think that is about 8 US gallons) with one betta and two tetras, only plastic ornaments and standard Biorb filtration.
History:
Start of April: Fish had small white area on flank, but still behaved normally, ate well and no signs of problems on the other fish. I looked it up in my fish diseases book, and on the internet, and it looked to me like a bacterial infection.

Tested tank:
No3 25
No2 0
GH less than 7
Kh 3d
Ph 6,4
Cl2 0

Did water change and treated with Interpet anti-bacterial as per instructions, repeating the dose after 4 days.
At start of course, the problem seemed to be improving, the white seemed to be coming off. However by the end of the 7 days it was definitely still there. Instructions said I could re-treat provided I did a water change, so I did a 6 ltr water change and repeated the course:

16th April, another 7 day treatment as before.
Sunday 19th, my notes say "definitely improving, fish still acting normal and healthy"

At the end of this treatment I change water again and put the carbon etc back in the tank to give the fish a bit of a rest. Throughout he had appeared to have no ill effects from the treatment in terms of eating of behaviour. Still as friendly as ever, swimming normally. But I was worried that the lesions that I thought was a bacterial infection had not reduced completely.

I decided to leave him a week but to get some other treatment plan ready to go in case he didn't improve.

I went on the internet again to decide between a treatment for white spot or maybe one for fin rot, though the fins had not been affected previously, and spotted Interpret Goldfish disease aquarium fish treatment. I checked the reviews and they seemed good. It appeared to be a broad spectrum treatment that might treat white spot, fin rot, bacteria etc so I decided to get that.

By May he was still looking very bad.

2nd May I did a 6 ltr water change, remove carbon and treated with this new treatment.

It is now 4th May and the attached photos show how bad my poor fish is looking. The top photo was taken this morning. The bottom photo was from 10th April when I thought he was improving as the white stuff seemed to be coming off him.

I'm getting desperate. Everywhere is closed so I cannot go to my usual fish store. Can anybody advise? Anybody any ideas what could this be and what I should be doing to fix it? It doesn't seem to affect the other fish in the slightest.

Thanks in advance

 

[Salty&Onion]

It looks like columnaris to me, but I could be wrong. You should have a school of 6 tetras or more. Is his tank cycled? What are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels? Do you have a heater inside his tank?
@Colin_T could help. He's the disease guy on here..

 

[Essjay]

It's hard to tell from the photo, but is there a lump under the white? if there is, has it ever sort of deflated to look like a crater, then puffed up again?

I'm asking because I once had a betta with those symptoms. In his case it was on his back just above his gill and he lived fine, no problems, until the lump got so big it started to invade his gill. I never knew what it was but it has been suggested since that it was a tumour which is incurable.

If yours sounds the same, given the position of the lump/patch he could live quite a long time with it. If he's swimming and eating normally, monitor him and let us know if there's any change.

 

[JuiceBox52]

He looks to be in too small of a tank, which would cause stress and poor water quality. What is your ammonia level? I didn't see that up there.

Do a 75% water change

 

[GadgetGal]

It looks like columnaris to me, but I could be wrong. You should have a school of 6 tetras or more. Is his tank cycled? What are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels? Do you have a heater inside his tank?
@Colin_T could help. He's the disease guy on here..

Thanks, I’ll look into that one. I did have 6 tetras at the start, but one by one they disappeared. I’ve been meaning to get more, but until I am sure that there isn’t something horribly wrong I’ve been holding off. I want to leave it until I’m sure the betta is OK

 

[GadgetGal]

He looks to be in too small of a tank, which would cause stress and poor water quality. What is your ammonia level? I didn't see that up there.

Do a 75% water change

It is a 30ltr tank which I believe is large enough for a betta. Am I mistaken? I’ve been changing about 30% weekly My test strips don’t show ammonia so I Haven’t been monitoring it. I’ll do a big water change once this treatment period is over.

 

[GadgetGal]

It's hard to tell from the photo, but is there a lump under the white? if there is, has it ever sort of deflated to look like a crater, then puffed up again?

I'm asking because I once had a betta with those symptoms. In his case it was on his back just above his gill and he lived fine, no problems, until the lump got so big it started to invade his gill. I never knew what it was but it has been suggested since that it was a tumour which is incurable.

If yours sounds the same, given the position of the lump/patch he could live quite a long time with it. If he's swimming and eating normally, monitor him and let us know if there's any change.

Thanks, it has developed into a lump which seems sort of pitted. He’s been behaving normally throughout, so maybe it is just a lump. It does look odd though. I’ll look into columnaris, as suggested by previous response. I think my 30ltr tank is big enough. There are two big photos at the end, I was quite pleased with today’s pic. He always seems to want to swim with his lump pointing away from me.....every time! It’s like he knows.

 

[JuiceBox52]

It is a 30ltr tank which I believe is large enough for a betta. Am I mistaken? I’ve been changing about 30% weekly My test strips don’t show ammonia so I Haven’t been monitoring it. I’ll do a big water change once this treatment period is over.

Yeah that's big enough, it looked smaller in the pic. I would change to 50% weekly

Also, dont put any more tetras, bettas are best kept alone. I have a feeling that's why they disappeared

 

[FishGuest5123]

It is a 30ltr tank which I believe is large enough for a betta. Am I mistaken? I’ve been changing about 30% weekly My test strips don’t show ammonia so I Haven’t been monitoring it. I’ll do a big water change once this treatment period is over.

The tank is a good size.

 

[GadgetGal]

Yeah that's big enough, it looked smaller in the pic. I would change to 50% weekly

Also, dont put any more tetras, bettas are best kept alone. I have a feeling that's why they disappeared

Thanks, yes I was wondering about that. Sort of difficult. Keep too few, or risk having more disappear. This chap is probably my 6th betta over the years. I’ve decided from here on in they are going to be solitary, but I’ve still got the issue of what to do with the tetras. I do have another tank, thinking about it. I could start it up again and move them and the get them some friends. Nothing beats a betta, for me, but that would keep them happy

 

[JuiceBox52]

Thanks, yes I was wondering about that. Sort of difficult. Keep too few, or risk having more disappear. This chap is probably my 6th betta over the years. I’ve decided from here on in they are going to be solitary, but I’ve still got the issue of what to do with the tetras. I do have another tank, thinking about it. I could start it up again and move them and the get them some friends. Nothing beats a betta, for me, but that would keep them happy

I think that would be a good idea. Either set up the tank, ask you lfs if they would take them, or offer them on craigslist or something

 

[Tez_20]

I've seen this while reading about Betta fish as i want one myself and it comes from heat, if heat burns them it causes a burn mark across the body.

I could be wrong as more experts on it could know more.

 

[GadgetGal]

I've seen this while reading about Betta fish as i want one myself and it comes from heat, if heat burns them it causes a burn mark across the body.

I could be wrong as more experts on it could know more.

That is interesting. I’ve been taking photos every few days and it started small then got bigger. This heater I’m using is a good quality design specifically for tropical fish so I doubt it is that or the elision would have slowly healed, surely. However if it is that, then he should recover.

 

[Tez_20]

That is interesting. I’ve been taking photos every few days and it started small then got bigger. This heater I’m using is a good quality design specifically for tropical fish so I doubt it is that or the elision would have slowly healed, surely. However if it is that, then he should recover.

If it's a burn it should heal i use API stress coat+ in my tank as it's good for these issues and healing but you really need to know the course of it.

 

[Essjay]

API Stress Coat contains aloe vera, I would not use it for that reason. There is evidence that aloe vera damages gills over time.